Hot weather should continue through Friday in Orange County, the National Weather Service says, although forecasters dropped their highest estimate from 100 to 99 for the county’s inland areas.

After that, the wall of heat begins to break down, with high temperatures dipping a few degrees for the weekend, and back down into the 80s next week.

A strong system of high-pressure air over the Southwest that has been dominating the picture will be interrupted by low pressure along the coast, which should, through next week, gradually spread farther inland.

Thursday and Friday are both mostly sunny perhaps after patchy fog here and there, along with some partial cloudiness Thursday morning.